Federal Judge Orders ‘Making a Murderer’ Subject Released From Prison

Netflix has already announced a second season of Making a Murderer, their surprise hit true-crime series that captured the nation’s imagination last winter. The streaming service confirmed last month that filmmakers Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos were already at work on a second batch of episodes “centering on new developments in the [Steven] Avery and [Brendan] Dassey cases.”

It looks like their show just got a huge real-life plot twist. Today a federal judge in Wisconsin overturned Dassey’s conviction and ordered him released from prison.

Dassey’s conviction and imprisonment was one of the most shocking aspects of Making a Murderer. Dassey, who has an extremely low IQ, had no criminal history and was repeatedly interrogated by police about his role in the murder of Teresa Halbach, after her remains were discovered on the property of his uncle, Steven Avery. Infuriating scenes in the Netflix series seemed to show Dassey’s attorney working with authorities to secure his cooperation and elicit a confession, rather than serving his client’s best interests.

Dassey was eventually found guilty and setenced to 41 years in prison. According to NBC, the “Northwestern University’s Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth legal team based in Chicago first took Dassey’s case to federal court in Wisconsin in 2014 the hopes that he will be granted a writ of Habeas corpus, which would have forced the government to examine his case and rule whether he has been imprisoned illegally.”

No doubt all these events will become a major part of the next season of the show. Sorry for the spoilers, Making a Murderer fans. Something tells me this story is still far from over though.